The seven year old above is Sierra Jane Downing. She is alive, and recovering after she briefly came to contract the bubonic plague. How is that possible? And we thought it doesn't exist anymore.
After returning a few days from a camping trip, doctors believe Sierra could have contracted the plague. Her temperature was 41 degrees Celsius. It drove her body into a seizure. The AP's Catherine Tsai reports:
The Downings eventually learned their daughter was ill with one of the last things they would've thought: bubonic plague, a disease that wiped out one-third of Europe in the 14th century but is now exceedingly rare-it hasn't been confirmed in Colorado since 2006-and treatable if caught early.
None of the incidences of the bubonic plague reported this year were fatal:Officials with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention acknowledged that a series of frightening illnesses linked to insects and pests have been surfacing lately across the country, including mosquito-borne West Nile virus outbreaks in Texas and other states, deadly hantavirus cases linked to Yosemite National Park, and some scattered plague cases.
But with some of the illnesses-like plague-this is not an unusually bad year.
What causes the bubonic plague anyway? Read more over at the Denver Post.But with some of the illnesses-like plague-this is not an unusually bad year.
Top image via THE DENVER POST/RJ Sangosti
